Privacy Policy

1.  Who This Policy Covers

This Policy applies to personal information we handle about visitors to our website, people who contact us or book a consultation, prospective clients who consult us about a possible matter, current and former clients, and the people connected to a client's matter whose information reaches us in the course of the work.

Aspire Legal Solutions PLLC is a Florida professional limited liability company. My Land Trustee is a separate, affiliated company and is not a law firm; it publishes its own privacy policy, and Section 10 explains what does and does not move between us.

2.  Confidentiality and Privacy Are Not the Same Thing

A privacy policy describes how a business handles personal information. A lawyer's duty of confidentiality is wider, older, and harder. Rule 4-1.6(a) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar provides that “[a] lawyer must not reveal information relating to a client's representation except as stated in subdivisions (b), (c), and (d), unless the client gives informed consent.” That covers everything relating to the representation, whatever its source, whether or not it is personal information, and whether or not it would be protected by any privacy statute.

The duty reaches you before you become a client. Rule 4-1.18(b) provides that “[e]ven when no client-lawyer relationship ensues, a lawyer who has learned information from a prospective client may not use or reveal that information, except as rule 4-1.9 would permit with respect to information of a former client.” If you consult us and never hire us, what you told us stays protected.

Nothing in this Policy narrows those duties, and nothing in it should be read as consent to any disclosure the Bar rules would not permit. Where this Policy and the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar point in different directions, the Rules govern.

3.  Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal information:

• Identifiers and contact information: name, business name, postal address, email address, and telephone and mobile numbers.
• Matter information: the facts of your situation and whatever the representation requires us to know. Depending on the matter this can include your assets and liabilities, the entities you own, the real property you hold, your family circumstances and relationships, your business operations and revenue, your estate planning objectives, and the documents you give us.
• Financial and payment information: billing details, the amount and timing of payments, funds held in and disbursed from the firm's trust account, and the last four digits and expiration date of a payment card. Full payment card numbers are collected and stored by our third-party payment processor, not by Aspire.
• Communications and matter records: emails, text messages, letters, call and meeting notes, and, where you have consented, audio-visual recordings and written transcripts of consultations and meetings.
• Voice profiles: because our meeting-transcription tool identifies who is speaking, it creates and stores a voice profile that distinguishes your voice from other participants'. A voice profile is a biometric identifier under the law of Illinois, Texas, and certain other states. We collect it only with your consent, and Section 7 explains it in full.
• Conflicts-checking information: the names of parties, adverse parties, related individuals, and connected entities in every matter we are asked to consider, including matters we decline. Section 11 explains why we keep this permanently.
• Website and device data: IP address, browser type, device identifiers, pages visited, referring URL, and similar information collected through cookies and comparable technologies.
• Inferences: conclusions we draw from the above in order to understand your situation and advise you on it.

Sensitive information, and why a law firm is different

Most businesses can tell you they do not want sensitive information. We often cannot. Depending on the matter, competent representation may require us to collect and hold government identification numbers, taxpayer identification numbers, financial account information, information about health or capacity where it bears on an estate plan or a fiduciary appointment, information about family relationships and marital status, and information about immigration or citizenship status where it affects a structure.

When we collect information of that kind we collect it because the representation requires it, we use it only for the representation and for the compatible purposes in Section 5, we do not use it to infer characteristics about you, and it is protected by Rule 4-1.6 for as long as we hold it. We limit our use of your voice profile to identifying who is speaking in a meeting you have consented to record. We do not use it to infer anything about you, and we do not use it to identify you anywhere else.

If you send us sensitive information we did not ask for and do not need, we use it only for the purpose for which you provided it and delete it when that purpose is spent.

4.  Where the Information Comes From

We collect information directly from you, when you complete a form, book a consultation, speak with us, engage the firm, or work with us on a matter. We collect it automatically from your device when you use our website. We receive it from service providers acting on our behalf, such as our scheduling platform, payment processor, practice-management system, and email and meeting tools.

We also obtain information from public records and from other participants in your matter. Public sources include county property and official records, the Florida Division of Corporations, court dockets, and similar registries. Other participants include title companies, lenders, accountants, financial advisors, opposing counsel, and co-counsel, in each case where the matter requires it or where you have authorized it.

5.  How We Use Information

We use personal information only for the purposes listed below, and for purposes reasonably compatible with them:

• To provide legal services, including advising you, drafting and filing documents, and representing you in a matter.
• To run conflicts checks before we take on a matter and for as long as we practice, so that we can comply with Rules 4-1.7 through 4-1.10.
• To communicate with you about your matter, your account, and your bill, and to respond to your questions and requests.
• To schedule and confirm meetings, including appointment reminders.
• To process payments, hold and disburse funds through the firm's trust account, and maintain the financial, trust-accounting, and tax records the Bar and the tax authorities require.
• To comply with our legal, ethical, regulatory, and tax obligations, including the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.
• To establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, including fee disputes, Bar inquiries, and claims against the firm.
• To improve our services, materials, website, and client experience.
• To protect against fraud, unauthorized access, and misuse of our services.

We do not use your personal information for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects about you, and we do not profile you for that purpose. No automated tool makes a legal judgment in your matter. Where we use software to transcribe a meeting, summarize a document, or search a file, a lawyer reviews the output and the lawyer is responsible for the advice. We will not use your information for a materially different purpose than those described here without first telling you and, where required, obtaining your consent.

6.  We Do Not Sell or Share Your Personal Information

Aspire does not sell personal information for money or other valuable consideration, and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, as those terms are defined under state privacy laws. We have not done so in the preceding twelve months. We do not sell or share the personal information of anyone, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

7.  Recording, Transcription, and AI Tools

Because much of our work is done remotely, we may record videoconference meetings, including consultations and client meetings, and we may use automated tools to transcribe them, generate summaries, or take notes. This section applies to every such recording. The full retention schedule is published separately as our Recording Retention Schedule, which this Policy incorporates by reference. The wider internal policy it forms part of is not published.

Consent comes first

If you do not consent we will not record or transcribe, and you will receive exactly the same representation. You may withdraw consent at any point during a meeting and we will stop recording from that point forward. Declining costs you nothing and we will not ask you twice.

What recording means when the conversation is privileged

When a recording of a privileged conversation is processed by an outside vendor, that vendor comes into possession of confidential information relating to your representation. We take that seriously, and it is the reason this section exists in a form you will not find in most privacy policies.

What that means in practice:

• We ask for your informed consent before a meeting relating to your matter is recorded or transcribed by an outside tool, and we tell you which tool it is.
• Our vendors are under written obligations of confidentiality and data protection, including an obligation to notify us of a security breach and of any legal process seeking your information.
• Access is limited to firm personnel who need the recording for the purposes in this section, and to the vendors that process it on our behalf. Two-factor authentication is required for the systems that hold recordings and transcripts.
• Some conversations are not recorded at all. Where the subject matter makes a recording an unnecessary risk to you, we take written notes instead. You may also ask us to keep any particular conversation off the record, and we will.

What we do with recordings

Recordings and transcripts are used to serve you, to let you or your lawyer revisit what was discussed, to keep an accurate record of the advice given, for internal training and quality review, and to establish or defend legal claims. They are not sold, not used to build advertising profiles, and not published or shared externally without your separate written permission.

We delete audio and video recordings, and the voice profile derived from them, twelve (12) months after the meeting. Written transcripts are kept for the periods in Section 11. You may ask us to delete any of it sooner, at any time.

8.  SMS and Text Messaging

Aspire uses SMS text messaging primarily to remind clients and prospective clients of scheduled appointments and to pass along time-sensitive information about a matter. When you provide your mobile number, you consent to receive informational, transactional text messages of that kind. We do not use this program to send marketing or promotional messages. Your mobile number and SMS consent status are never sold, shared, or disclosed to third parties or affiliates for their own marketing or promotional purposes, and this remains true if any other part of this Policy is changed.

Message frequency varies with your matter and your appointments. Message and data rates may apply. Text is not a secure channel and is not the right place for confidential detail; we keep matter substance to email, the client portal, or a call. You may revoke consent and opt out at any time by any reasonable means, including replying “STOP” to any message or contacting us using the details in Section 17. We honor opt-outs promptly and do not require a particular word or channel. Reply “HELP” for assistance. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

9.  Cookies, Tracking, and Universal Opt-Out Signals

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to operate the site, remember your preferences, and understand how visitors use our content. You can control cookies through your browser settings; disabling them may affect some functionality.

Global Privacy Control. Where your browser or a browser extension sends a universal opt-out signal such as Global Privacy Control, we treat that signal as a valid request to opt out of any sale, sharing, or targeted-advertising use of your personal information, and we honor it automatically for that browser without requiring you to take any further step. Because we do not sell or share personal information in the first place, this signal does not change how we handle your data. We honor it regardless.

We also honor browser “Do Not Track” signals to the same effect.

10.  How We Share Information

Every disclosure below is subject to Section 2. Where a disclosure would reveal information relating to a client's representation, we make it only as Rule 4-1.6 permits, which in most cases means only with your informed consent or where the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation.

• Service providers and processors who perform functions on our behalf, including practice management, document management and storage, scheduling, videoconferencing and transcription, payment processing, SMS delivery, email delivery, client intake and relationship management, e-signature, and IT support. Each is engaged under a written contract that limits it to processing the information for our specified purposes and prohibits it from selling the information or using it for its own purposes.
• People engaged on your matter, including co-counsel, local counsel, expert witnesses, appraisers, accountants, title agents, and process servers, where the representation requires it or where you have authorized it.
• Counterparties and their representatives, where advancing your matter requires it. Negotiating a deal or filing a document is a disclosure, and we make those disclosures because carrying out the representation requires them.
• Courts, registries, and government offices, where a filing or recording is part of the work you engaged us to do.
• Professional advisors to the firm, including our accountants, auditors, insurers, and our own counsel, where needed and subject to professional confidentiality duties.
• Government authorities or other parties when required by law, subpoena, or valid legal process, or where permitted by Rule 4-1.6(b) or (c). We assert every applicable privilege and objection on your behalf before producing anything relating to a representation, and where we are legally permitted to notify you of such a demand, we will.
• A successor entity in connection with a merger, sale, dissolution, or transfer of the practice, in which case we will require the successor to honor this Policy or give you notice and a choice before your information becomes subject to a materially different policy, consistent with our obligations on the sale or closure of a law practice.

My Land Trustee and other affiliated companies

My Land Trustee is a separate company from the firm. We do not treat information about your representation as shared across the two simply because they are affiliated. Where a matter calls for a land trust and you want My Land Trustee to serve as trustee, we tell you they are a separate affiliated company, we explain what that means for you, and we obtain your informed consent before sending them what they need. You are free to use a different trustee.

11.  How Long We Keep Information

We keep personal information only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, on the schedule below. These periods are subject to any longer period required by law or by the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, or needed to resolve a dispute or enforce our agreements.

At the end of the applicable period we securely delete the information or de-identify it so that it can no longer reasonably be linked to you, and we do not attempt to re-identify de-identified data.

You can override most of this

These periods are our defaults, not your obligation. You may ask us at any time to delete any category of information we hold about you, including meeting recordings and transcripts. Deletion requests are handled on the timeline in Section 14, and in practice we action a straightforward one within thirty (30) days. A general deletion request under Section 13 covers recordings and transcripts unless you tell us to keep them.

Four things we cannot delete on request: trust accounting records within the 6-year period Rule 5-1.2(f) requires; conflicts-checking information, which is the mechanism protecting every client including you; anything subject to a litigation hold, a court order, or a preservation demand; and anything we need in order to complete a transaction you asked us to complete. Where we cannot delete something, we will tell you which item and why.

12.  Data Security

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include access controls limiting information to personnel who need it for a legitimate purpose; encryption of data both in transit and at rest; two-factor authentication required to access systems holding client information, including recordings and transcripts; written confidentiality and data-protection obligations imposed on the vendors that process information on our behalf; and periodic review of these practices. Rule 4-1.6(e) requires us to make “reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of, or unauthorized access to, information relating to the client's representation.” The rule sets the standard, not the particular controls; the controls above are how we currently meet it, and we treat that as a professional obligation rather than a courtesy.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and while we work hard to protect your information we cannot guarantee absolute security. Ordinary email is not encrypted end to end; for anything sensitive, use the client portal or ask us for a secure link.

If a breach occurs

If we discover a security breach affecting your personal information, we will investigate promptly and notify you and any required regulator in the manner and within the timeframes applicable law requires. Under section 501.171(4)(a), Florida Statutes, notice to affected individuals is made as expeditiously as practicable and without unreasonable delay, and no later than thirty (30) days after the determination of a breach or reason to believe a breach occurred. Where a breach affects 500 or more individuals in Florida, section 501.171(3)(a) requires notice to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs on the same thirty-day clock. Our notice will describe what happened, the categories of information involved, what we are doing about it, and the steps you can take to protect yourself. Where the breach involves information relating to a representation, we will also tell you what it means for your matter.

13.  Your Privacy Rights

A growing number of states give residents rights over their personal information. Whether any particular state law legally applies to a firm of our size depends on that state's thresholds, and most do not reach us. Florida's own statute is a good example: the Florida Digital Bill of Rights, sections 501.701 through 501.722, Florida Statutes, applies only to a controller that “[m]akes in excess of $1 billion in global gross annual revenues” and meets one of three further conditions, none of which describes this firm.

Rather than ask you to work out which law covers you, we extend the following rights to every individual in the United States as a matter of policy, regardless of where you live:

• To confirm whether we process your personal information, and to access a copy of it.
• To correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
• To delete personal information we hold about you, subject to the four exceptions in Section 11.
• To obtain a copy of the information you provided to us in a portable, readily usable format.
• To opt out of any sale of your personal information, any sharing or processing for targeted advertising, and any profiling with legal or similarly significant effects. We do not engage in these activities, so there is nothing to opt out of, but the right stands.
• To limit our use of sensitive personal information to what is necessary to provide the services you requested.
• To withdraw a consent you previously gave, including consent to record or transcribe a meeting and consent to receive text messages.
• Not to be discriminated against, or receive a lesser level of service or a different price, for exercising any of these rights.

14.  How to Exercise Your Rights

Send your request to the email address in Section 17, or write to us at the postal address there. Tell us which right you wish to exercise and give us enough information to locate your records. We will verify your identity, using information already in our possession where we can rather than asking for more than we need. If we cannot verify your identity we will tell you why.

We will acknowledge your request promptly and respond substantively within forty-five (45) days. Where a request is complex or numerous, we may extend that period once by a further forty-five (45) days, and we will tell you before we do so and why. There is no charge for a request unless it is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we will tell you the reason and any fee before proceeding.

If we say no, you can appeal

If we decline your request in whole or in part, our response will explain why. You may appeal that decision at no cost by replying to our response or writing to the contact in Section 17 with the word “Appeal.” A person who was not involved in the original decision will review it, and we will inform you in writing of the outcome and our reasoning within forty-five (45) days. If we deny the appeal, we will give you a method to lodge a complaint with your state attorney general or other regulator.

Authorized agents

You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We will ask the agent for written proof of authority, and may ask you to verify your own identity directly and to confirm you granted the authority. Where the request concerns information relating to a representation, we will confirm your authorization with you directly before releasing anything.

15.  Children's Privacy

Our services are directed to adults and our website is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through the website. If we learn that we have collected information through the website from anyone under 18, we will delete it promptly, and we treat information from a child under 13 as requiring immediate deletion. This is separate from information about minors that reaches us because a matter requires it, such as the names and dates of birth of a client's children in an estate plan; that information is collected from the client, held under Rule 4-1.6, and kept with the matter file. If you believe a child has provided us information through the website, please contact us using the details in Section 17.

16.  Third-Party Links and Services

Our website and communications may link to third-party sites and platforms that we do not control, including our scheduling platform, payment processor, and client portal. This Policy does not apply to them, and we are not responsible for their privacy practices. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of any site you visit.

17.  Changes, Contact, and Complaints

We may update this Policy from time to time, and the effective date at the top reflects the most recent revision. If we make a material change, to the categories of information we collect, the purposes we use it for, who we share it with, or your rights, we will give notice on our website and, where we have your contact details and the change affects you, directly. A material change will not be applied retroactively to information already collected without your consent where consent is required.

Questions about this Policy, requests regarding your personal information, and privacy complaints may be directed to:

We will respond to a complaint within ten (10) business days. Nothing in this Policy limits your right to complain to the Federal Trade Commission, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, your own state's attorney general, or any other regulator with authority over us. Complaints about a lawyer's professional conduct, including the handling of confidential information, may also be made to The Florida Bar.